Thirsty in the land between the
rivers By Ali al-Fadhily
BAGHDAD - Two of the largest rivers of the
Middle East run through Iraq, so why are Iraqis
desperate for water?
The vast majority of
Iraqis live by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers
or one of their many tributaries. The two rivers,
which defined the ancient land of Mesopotamia
(from the Greek "between the rivers"), join near
Basra in the south to form the Shatt al-Arab river
basin. Iraq is also gifted with high-quality
groundwater resources; about
a fifth of the territory is farmland.
"The
water we have in Iraq is more than enough for our
living needs," said chief engineer Adil Mahmood of
the Irrigation Authority in Baghdad. "In fact we
can export water to neighboring countries like
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan - who manage
shortages in water resources with good planning."
But now Iraqi farmers struggle to get
water to their crops. There is severe lack of
electricity to run pumps and fuel to run
generators.
"The water is there and the
rivers have not dried up, but the problem lies in
how to get it to our dying plantations," said
Jabbar Ahmed, a farmer from Latifiya south of
Baghdad. "It is a shame that we, our animals and
our plants are thirsty in a country that has the
two great rivers."
Iraq now imports most
agricultural products because of lack of
irrigation.
"I used to sell 50 tonnes of
tomatoes every year, but now I go to the market to
buy my daily needs," said Numan Majid, from the
Abu Ghraib area just west of Baghdad. "I tried
hard to cope with the situation, but in vain. One
cannot grow crops in Iraq anymore with this water
shortage."
Some Iraqis talk of the times
when this region taught the world how to use
water.
"Sumerians were more advanced than
we are now," said Mahmood Shakir, a historian with
Baghdad University. "Over 7,000 years ago, the
Sumerians dug channels to water their wheat farms,
and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, brought
water to his great [Hanging] Gardens in a way that
made them one of the Seven Wonders."
According to the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture Organization, Iraq has a total area of
438,320 square kilometers and 924 kilometers of
inland waterways. It is topographically shaped
like a basin between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
"This gift from God is not used properly
by the authorities because of the UN sanctions and
then the chaos that followed US occupation of the
country," said Jabbar Ahmed.
The US
company Bechtel, whose board members have close
ties to President George W Bush, was to carry out
reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq's water
and electrical infrastructure. But the company
quit the country without carrying out most of
those tasks.
The average household in Iraq
now gets two hours of electricity a day. About 70%
of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water,
and only 19% have sewage access, according to the
World Health Organization. Unemployment stands at
more than 60%.
Amid all this, the
government is funding study of agricultural
practices. "The government is spending huge
amounts of money on research into agriculture and
irrigation," said Muath Sadiq, a researcher in
agricultural reform in Baghdad. "I think that is
simply a way to steal more money from the
government budget."
The research is not
much good, he said, because the real problem "is
clearly the shortage in electricity and fuel. To
be more precise, the reason is the occupation and
the corrupt governments it brought to the
country."
Ali al-Fadhily, Inter
Press Service's correspondent in Baghdad, works in
close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, IPS's
US-based specialist writer on Iraq, who travels
extensively in the region.
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